We want school to be fun for children, but the truth is, there are certain academic disciplines that are not necessarily fun. Some of our older students are behind academically and as we have worked with them it has become obvious that there are "holes" in what they do know. Often it is in the form of processing skills, or lack there of. Even if they can successfully complete a task they often do not understand it. In an attempt to help these students "catch up" we introduce them to the Montessori materials which can give concrete understanding. We also have them produce work on paper to help 'cement' concepts and knowledge.
We use the Spelling Connections curriculum for spelling as it is very thorough and phonetically based, but we find it is challenging for them. It requires thought and and writing---both of which are somewhat difficult for several of our students.
Today, as I was working in the classroom, I overhead a student say, "I love this"! I could not see what he was working on, but presumed it to be some hands on lesson. When I looked over to see what it was, I was thrilled to see it was one of our students, who is usually resistant to spelling work and he was commenting on his assigned spelling pages--that was a win! As I smiled to myself I could not help but think, "I love THIS"!
